Monash Gippsland handed over to the University of Ballarat

Senior staff at Monash Gippsland have been told that the campus will be handed over to the University of Ballarat last night. The Victorian Higher Education Minister is expected to make an announcement about the Gippsland campus later this morning.

The Vice Chancellor of Monash University, Professor Ed Byrne denies it is a take over but he says that once changes are in force future students at the campus will no longer recieve a Monash University degree.

"We're starting a process of broad consultation around the University of Ballarat and Monash University through our Gippsland campus coming together to form an expanded regionally focussed University for Victoria," he says.

The Vice Chancellor says anyone currently enrolled in a Monash University course will recieve a Monash degree and he says there will be no job losses as a result of the changes.

The National Tertiary Education Union says that some staff will be split between the University's Gippsland and Berwick campus and some may be permanently transferred to the Berwick campus.

Monash Gippsland has already cut a number of its courses including engineering and media and communications.

"I find it difficult to believe that the Vice Chancellor is taking us away from that path to strengthen the Gippsland campus, as a campus of Monash University," says Dan Jordan, executive officer of the Monash University Gippsland student union.